What Happened?

A collapsing wood farm house in a field dotted with cows.

I drive past it whenever I head into town. 

My eyes are always drawn to the ramshackle farmhouse, now close to losing its battle with time and gravity.

The roof sags and displays scars from years of driving rain, raging snowstorms and the glare from the relentless summer sun. Gaping black holes mark where fragile glass was once a barrier against the elements and intruders. A partial wooden fence still stands to one side. Did it keep animals in or out of the land surrounding the building. Cattle graze in the pastures that surround the home. Are they intruders or have they always been free to roam the area? It’s a peaceful scene but thoughts of backbreaking work and a hard life on the edge of the prairies during the early 1900s make me shiver.

The same question always haunts my thoughts.

What happened to you?

Did you simply outgrow your modest home? As your farm and family grew, did you build something bigger somewhere else on your property? Or did tragedy strike, forcing you to leave behind not only your home but your dreams?

Those questions linger long after the house disappears in my rearview mirror. Chances are that I’ll never know the answers.

I can’t help but wonder how many bedrooms the house holds? How many babies were born and raised within its four walls? I’ll never know whether the weathered boards still carry the faint scent of wood smoke from the logs that burned in the stove during bitter winter nights. If I stood in the house quietly enough, would I hear the echo of children’s footsteps racing across the floorboards and the slow thumps on the stairs from exhausted parents just trying to survive?

Did laughter float freely in those rooms, or did muffled sobs drown it out?

Even as it collapses, the house holds onto its secrets.

But that doesn’t stop my imagination from filling in the blanks.

Perhaps that’s why places like this fascinate me. Like a thriller novel, every abandoned building, tells a story, even if most of it has been lost and all that’s left are hints and questions.

Is there a place you pass by regularly that sparks questions that haunt you?